Manchester City, two-time Champions League final ticket holders and winners under Pep Guardiola, have struggled in the last two months to get over the line.

Their defeats have come in quick succession, and the once dominant force in Manchester looks like it is vulnerable to every single team.

In the Champions League, the team is struggling to hit the ground. After losing to Sporting Lisbon and Juventus 2-0, their fate in the Champions League Round of 16 looks saddening.

Fans around the world who are avid City supporters cannot fathom what is going on at the club, for they to plummet from a high and produce disappointing football displays.

But, City boss Guardiola thinks there is a way around.

Sticking to the Plan – Guardiola

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola dismisses Ilkay Gundogan’s claim the players are overcomplicating their passing after slumping to a seventh defeat in 10 games at Juventus; Gundogan also said City are short on confidence and the opposition “don’t need to do much” to get to them.

Pep Guardiola admitted he is questioning himself after Manchester City’s latest defeat left them in danger of missing out on the Champions League knockout stages.

City lost their seventh game in ten games in all competitions, falling 2-0 at Juventus.

Second-half goals from Dusan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie at the Allianz Stadium left Guardiola’s side languishing in 22nd place in the standings.

With just two games of the league phase remaining, City’s chances of a place in the top eight and automatic last-16 qualification look remote. They face a battle to stay in the top 24 and claim a playoff spot.

City manager Guardiola said: “Of course I question myself, but I’m stable in good and bad moments.

“I try to find a way to do it. I’m incredibly honest. If we played well, we played well; today, I thought we played well.

“Our game will save us. We can do it. We conceded few chances compared to the Nottingham Forest game that we won. We’re making the right tempo.

“We missed the last pass, did not arrive in the six-yard box [at the right time] or have the composure at the right moment.

“But I love my team. This is life; it happens. Sometimes you have a bad period, but I’m going to insist until we’re there.”

City now faces a crunch trip to Paris Saint-Germain, which is also at risk of failing to qualify, next month before closing with a home game against Club Brugge.

Guardiola accepts that the top 24 are now the only aim. Manchester City must fight for their Champions League final tickets through the eliminator round.

They will, however, need to finish within the top 24 to do this.

He said: “It’s the target. We need one point or three points. We go to Paris to try to do it and the last game at home.”

Veteran midfielder Ilkay Gundogan said that after the game, City suffered from a loss of confidence, but Guardiola dismissed his player’s comments.

“I do not agree with Ilkay,” he said. “Of course, it is tough, but except for one or two games in this period, we’ve played well.”

Gundogan told TNT Sports: “It [confidence] is a big part of it. That’s a mental issue as well.

“You can see that sometimes we miss the ball or lose a duel, and you see that we drop immediately and lose the rhythm. They [the opponents] don’t even need to do much, but it greatly affects us. They can break our rhythm with the smallest thing.

“Even more, you have to do the simple things as well as possible and create fluidity, then work hard again. This is how you get confidence back – do the small and simple things, [but] in crucial moments, we are always doing the wrong things.”

Juventus coach Thiago Motta was pleased with the hosts’ performance, which boosted their hopes of making the top eight.

“It was a deserved victory,” he said. “We had to defend as a team and be ready to attack with quality.

Emery Wants Villa to Dream Again

Aston Villa booked Champions League final tickets to the 1982’s UEFA Champions League and went on to win the whole thing.

Decades later legendary manager Unai Emery took the side to the UEFA Champions League, ticking a major milestone.

The Spaniard said UEFA Champions League qualification was a distant “dream” for Villa when he replaced Steven Gerrard as the club’s manager in October 2022.

But after reigniting the European flame at Villa Park with UEFA Conference League qualification in his debut term in charge, Emery is urging his team to “dream again” as they close in on a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

“[The Champions League] was a dream when I arrived here because to play through the Premier League and Champions League is very difficult,” Emery, who took over with Villa just outside the relegation zone on goal difference, told TNT Sports.

“We were very motivated to achieve our objective in the process as well as possible. After playing [in the] Conference League in Europe, we tried to get Champions League last year, and now, again, it’s been a dream.

“To play in the Champions League has been a dream, but of course, we can believe in our work; we are more or less overcoming many difficulties. We have to try and dream again about it.”

Villa snatched a 3-2 victory in their latest European match against RB Leipzig, courtesy of a late Ross Barkley winner in Germany. This victory propels them to fifth place in the inaugural league phase with two games to play.

That win was their fourth from six in the Champions League, as The Villans enjoyed their return under the former Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal boss.

After being impressive domestically as well in recent seasons, Emery guided Villa to a fourth-place finish last season, and he was asked if he found it hard to rest his mind.

Villa is currently fifth on the table with a few more games to go. If they can score points in the remaining games, they could become automatic qualifiers for the Round of 16.

UEFA Champions League final tickets will be available soon.